In the current issue a lot about the May coup in 1926 and here it will not be otherwise. Contrary to appearances, football in the II Republic of Poland was truly politicized, and much more than today, and surely this image was more diverse than in the Polish Republic or the 3rd Republic. And on the league ball, Piłsudski's assassination besides postponed!
But let's start by painting a image of football in Poland in the interwar years. The south of the country, especially Lviv and Kraków, was ahead of the rest, as football developed without obstacles in Austro-Hungary. In the erstwhile occupations: Russian and Prussian, this infrastructure was only created, although successes came rather quickly, as exampled by Warta Poznań. In any case, the first championship titles went between Lviv and Krakow and so it was until May 1926.
However, politics entered the field a small earlier. The 1920s were sometimes where football became popular and became an expressive of interests of various social groups, including classes, which, in the era of the October Revolution and the popularity of socialist ideas in general, prompted analysis of the phenomenon of Marxists as well. These powerfully supported the sport, but they wanted to free him from bourgeois dependence. They considered the thought of sports distorted by the fact that the local sports club was sitting in the pocket of any industrialist who made a toy out of it. So possibly they're fortunate they didn't live to see the time erstwhile the sheikhs do the same thing, but on a 1000 times the scale?
In any event, socialists in 1925 decided to form their own association, bringing together sports clubs funded by the working class. Many of them inactive be today. Among them was Łódź Widzew, but from more celebrated present he belonged to this squad besides Częstochowa Raków. He characterized these teams usually short for RKS, or Workers' Sports Club. The association besides had an interesting name: the Association of Workers' Sports Associations, or... ZRSS. But is it right to associate with the russian state? Doubtful. The founder and president of this association was Jerzy Michałowicz, a socialist and yes, but besides a veteran of the Polish-bolshevik War.
However, let us besides mention the national aspect of football at the time. The II Republic was full of minorities and this besides affected the football landscape. German clubs, for example, were boycotted by fans, not liked by the environment, but played with success. FC Katowice was even 1 step distant from the title and the news is that they were reportedly stripped of this by judging in a decisive match. judaic clubs were besides popular, although this was a large simplification, due to the fact that among them were Zionist and laborist, which was sometimes manifested by intra-Jewish brawls.
Workers' clubs had their gameplays, they even selected “the working champion of Poland”, but they could not precisely boycott the competitions considered a bourgeois PZPN, for the simple reason that without registration in the relation they had no right, for example, to rent the field, so it missed the goal. At the time, however, we will not see Widzew or Warsaw Skry, the 4th force in the capital after Polonia, Warsawianka and the Legion. However, it was not conscious of the boycott, due to the fact that Skra even fought at the highest level, but simply lost them. However, part of the distinctness of working football was participation in separate games. And that's where the May bombing comes in.
Well, as any Readers know, the Polish Socialist organization supported Piłsudski's assassination. After a short time, she moved on to the average opposition, while after “Ziuk” made an alliance with the aristocratic aristocracy at the castle in Nienowy (October 1926), PPS was already in the deep opposition. 2 years later, a tiny part of the organization supporting the inactive sanitization left the structures forming the “Polish Socialist organization – the erstwhile Revolutionary Faction” with Rajmund Jaworowski at the head. The organization was so interesting that it had good contacts with... Warsaw bandits. Besides, the celebrated Tasiemka besides came from there.
And how did the divided in the PPS translate into solidarity between working football? 1 club only declared solidarity with BBS (so mockingly called the Jaworowski splitters in the appropriate PPS, since the association with BBWR) and it is simply a club rather well known today, due to the fact that Znicz Pruszków. due to the fact that he met him for this betrayal boycott from another working clubs, he had the support of the sanitation authorities. So who knows if it is not due to this historical incidental that Robert Lewandowski's talent was revealed in this club?
Tomasz Jankowski
Photo by Znicz Pruszków Club
Think Poland, No. 19-20 (10-17.05.2016)
